Flotsam
by MJDai
Summary: This is where my little fics go, every chapter is unconnected to the others, just little bits of flotsam washing up on shore
1. The water and the dance

Sailing away from the horrors of the hell-house Sinbad found himself the bow of his Nomad, just staring out over the water.

Once upon a time, when he'd just been a boy the seas had taken his beloved parents and he'd hated the waters for it. They'd taken Lea and all he wanted was to get back at them. So when Doubar had taken him to sea, had taught him to sail, he'd decided he would conquer the water, he would master the seven seas, make them bow to his will.

His worst fear had been to drown; to be taken into those terrible, cold depths and just disappear, gasping for air.

What he hadn't bargained for was the love he would grow to feel for the very waters he sought to conquer. He heeded her when the sea tried to tell him something, spotted her little tells, noticed all her quirks until he knew what she was going to do before it even happened. She wasn't trying to drown him at all, they were in a dance, she and him, a dance no one else could see.

And then she took Maeve from him. It stung him in the secret places of his heart. He had trusted and she'd betrayed him. So he'd sought to punish her, to become a crueller master than he'd ever been before. But the water didn't care and that tore at him.

Like a beacon there'd been red hair, streaming behind as the girl ran.

He'd followed her into hell.

And the seas finally took pity on him. They formed a creature out of their own existence and sent it to soothe his aching heart. She'd saved him from the clutches of the devil himself.

The water had restored him and he was thankful. No longer did he seek to conquer, just to dance with her once more. The water buoyed him up much higher when he sailed with love in his heart.


	2. Little brothers

In the darkness of the night Doubar stood on deck, holding the tiller and looking to the stars to reassure him of his course. A few lanterns- candles in glass cages- hung in safe places on the deck, but none too close to the first mate, he saw better without.

As they sailed deep waters there was no look-out needed, so there were just two men clambering up and down the mast, adjusting the sails to catch the wind. One man took this opportunity to swab the deck with a mixture of tar and frayed rope that made the old planks repel water once more.

Doubar treasured the quiet efficiency of these moments. They set his mind at ease.

Close to midnight he noticed another of the crew come up on deck, having a quick look around and then darting over to the upper-deck aft of the ship. Maeve came to a halt by Dermott, who was roosting just above the burn-mark made at the very beginning of their journey. She noticed Doubar and acknowledged him with a nod. Like a true sailor she didn't need much to haul herself up to the cross-beam where her familiar perched, she just shimmied up and swung herself over onto the beam. Sailors who were afraid of falling were ex-sailors.

Doubar averted his eyes to prevent himself from looking up Maeve's loose linen shorts but when he judged he'd given her enough time he looked up to see what was happening. He could only hope she wasn't going to set the ship on fire on his watch.

He saw Maeve hunched over the sleeping hawk, waking him by lightly scratching his chest. The bird seemed confused at first, then Maeve quietly muttered a few words to him before she pressed a kiss to the top of his head. Dermott relaxed and looked at Maeve for a long moment. Then he went back to sleep and she scrambled back down to the deck.

"Careful," Doubar said it softly but the quiet night carried his words to her just in time. The lower-deck was completely covered in tar by now. If she didn't want to get her shoes covered in the stuff, she'd have to wait a few minutes.

Maeve came to stand by Doubar and after a few moments of companionable silence she answered the question he was too polite to ask:

"It's his birthday, I've woken him up at midnight on the day of his birth since he was born," Maeve said.

Doubar noted that she'd said 'born' instead of 'hatched' and quietly filed the detail away. He, like everyone else on-board, had his theories about the relationship between Maeve and Dermott, but he figured Maeve would tell them in her own time.

"I was thirteen when Sinbad was born. I didn't dare touch him at first, he looked so tiny and fragile… But then my mother laid that tiny little creature in my arms and she said that having a brother meant that I would never be alone," Doubar told her.

"I was seven and he was sickly child. He needed constant care and attention… It exhausted my parents, so sometimes I'd take over so they could get some sleep or feed the pigs or tend the crops or do one of the other of the hundreds of things that needed doing on a daily basis. So I'd sit there with him curled against my belly, like he thought I was his mother and he wanted to go back inside, and I'd feed him little bits of goat's milk and then he'd sleep for a bit, exhausted by even that little act and then he'd wake up and we'd do it all over again." Maeve shared.

"They need a lot, don't they? Little brothers…" Doubar said, placing a comforting hand on the back of Maeve's neck.

"You've given your life to yours," Maeve pointed out, leaning against Doubar's side, taking and giving comfort in the darkness.

"So have you," Doubar said, and he was so normal, so non-judgemental about it that Maeve knew her secret was safe with him.

"It's worth it," Maeve said, then turned her face to look at Doubar's. "Isn't it?"

Doubar considered it for a moment, not for himself but for her. He didn't know exactly what she'd been through to protect her little brother but he knew it had taken her away from everything that was familiar to her, shaped her into a sword-wielding sorceress and made a little hollow in her heart that could not be filled until she'd rectified the situation.

"It's worth it," Doubar finally said, his voice a deep rumble. Because at the end of the day, that's what you did for your brother. "But they can be a real pain in the neck!" He added in lighter tones. "Sinbad could get into trouble sitting alone in an empty room!"

"Tell me some stories," Maeve requested, relishing the affection she heard in the big brother's voice when thinking about his little brother.

"Well there was this one time when he was about five years old…"

They stood close together as Doubar told his tale, his deep voice forming a cocoon around them in the silence of the night. There was a comfort in the understanding between them of what it was to take the fate of a much beloved brother on your own shoulders and that simple act of understanding made it a little easier to bear.


	3. The importance of bacon

"Sinbad," Maeve poked the sailor in the side.

"Wha?" He answered, lifting his head from the pillow and looking around with barely opened eyes.

"Bacon," Maeve said.

"Huh?" He asked.

"Bacon," she repeated.

"'s from a pig right?" Sinbad asked.

"Yes, and I want it. I want bacon and eggs on heavy brown bread," Maeve said, practically salivating at the thought.

"Can't, pig 's unclean," Sinbad said, turning around and laying his head back down.

"Sinbad, I am growing your offspring in here, the least you can do is get me some bacon!" Maeve protested.

"I can get you eggs at the next harbour," Sinbad said, and that really was the best he could do.

"Have we got any bread?" Maeve asked.

"Hard-tack," Sinbad said, his eyes closed and half-way asleep already.

"Cheese? Onions?" Maeve asked.

"Yeah, in the larder," Sinbad mumbled.

Maeve got out of bed and walked towards the door.

"Where you going?" Sinbad asked.

"I am going to make onion soup, then I'm going to melt some cheese onto the hard-tack and dump it into the soup until it's edible," Maeve said.

That actually sounded quite good. "I'll join you," Sinbad said, following her into the galley. He knew better than to offer to cook it himself; she would take him up on it and he had no idea where to start.

"Here, slice 'em into rings," Maeve said, handing him a few onions before diving back into the larder to see what she could dig up there.

Sinbad was unabashedly crying when she turned back around. Though she knew it was the onion's doing she still felt a little tug on her heartstrings so she kissed his cheek.

"That's all I get?" Sinbad asked.

"Get me a pig and I'll see what I can do," Maeve grinned at him.

"What would you do with a whole pig?" Sinbad asked, though he'd regret it in a moment.

"Slaughter it and preserve it of course. We used to slaughter a pig every year after the harvest was over. I think I can still do it, I might need you to help me with the heavy lifting," Maeve said.

"But they're unclean!" Sinbad protested.

"Not if you wash 'em," Maeve shrugged, chucking some butter into a pan and throwing the sliced onions in after.

"They're diseased," Sinbad said.

"Heh, if I've caught something from eating pigs you can rest assured you've got it now too," Maeve said, totally unconcerned about his outrage. "Have we got any white wine?"

"No white wine sorry… You haven't secretly fed me an unclean animal have you?" Sinbad asked.

"Well this is going to be a boring soup," Maeve said, unable to find any stock so just adding water, salt and some common herbs. "And don't worry so much, I haven't fed you anything. I just meant that you've uhm… rather thoroughly enjoyed my body, so if I had something…"

"Oh," Sinbad said, moving behind Maeve and wrapping his arms around her expanding waist. "Totally worth it."

Maeve smiled and pressed another kiss to his cheek before turning her attention back to the cooking. "Can you melt some cheese onto the biscuit?"

"Put cheese on top of it, put the whole thing above the fire?" Sinbad guessed.

"I knew you were smart," Maeve said with a smile.

Later, while they were eating the soup, sitting close together, enjoying their domesticity Maeve tried one more time:

"So about that bacon…"


	4. Location, location, location!

The moon was full, its light blotting out almost all the stars in the sky. Bryn had chosen a spot that felt right- on top of a grassy knoll in the middle of nowhere, where they wouldn't be disturbed.

"Are you ready?" Sinbad asked, joining her on the knoll.

Nervously Bryn smoothed down her short skirt- she'd never done this, well not that she remembered anyway. Finally she nodded, avoiding his gaze.

With two fingers he lifted her chin, until their eyes met. "You'll do fine," he said, his voice deep and soothing.

She took his hands in her own and without breaking eye-contact she drew one last shuddering breath. "Let's do this."

She started chanting. First in Latin, then Hebrew and finally in Arabic, her voice lingered on even as she began the next chant. She sounded like a choir onto herself.

Sinbad could barely make out what she was saying- something about bringing back the one he sought. He felt the power gathering in the circle of their joined hands. Her hair started to float, his own followed suit.

The power between them was trying to force them apart, force a way out. Sinbad clutched Bryn's hands as tightly as he could, they were shaking with the effort. He gritted his teeth, afraid they'd be shaken right out of his mouth if this kept up any longer.

Suddenly Bryn cried out, the same moment they were blown violently apart, landing in two miserable heaps on opposite sides of the knoll.

Sinbad made it back to his feet, he felt a stabbing pain and figured he'd probably broken a rib or something but didn't take the time to check. He scrambled back up the knoll and almost fell over in shock at what he found there:

Master Dim-Dim sat naked in a puddle of water, Maeve stood near him, clutching a book to her chest and looking about her, next to Maeve another woman stood, shaking like a reed.

"Sinbad my boy, I should've known it was you! Can't you give a man a moment's warning to get out of the bath," Master Dim-Dim grouched but he smiled to take the sting out of his words. He'd jumped up and hid behind Maeve, grabbing her by her hips and turning her to the unfamiliar woman so no females could look upon his nakedness.

"Find him something to wear, will you? I'm his apprentice, not his body-shield!" Maeve protested.

Sinbad took off his shirt and handed it over Maeve's shoulder to his old teacher. There was no mistaking Maeve's appreciative look down his body. Resolutely Sinbad turned around, finally seeing Bryn limping back up the knoll.

"You alright?" Sinbad asked.

"I think I sprained- everything," Bryn moaned, then brightened. "It worked!"

"Yeah," Sinbad said, and suddenly jumped when he felt two cold hands on his back.

"You broke two ribs," Maeve said, from behind him.

"I figured. I'll ask Firouz to look at it later," Sinbad said.

"I've gotten really good at bone-knitting spells, if you want to let me try…" Maeve said.

"Uhm," Sinbad hesitated seeing Dim-Dim shake his head in warning over Maeve's shoulder. "Maybe some other time."

"Excuse me," the third person Bryn had magicked to the knoll finally found her voice, having been overlooked in all the confusion. "What's going on here? Is this some kind of trick?"

Everyone turned to her, trying to figure out who she was and why she was there. Dim-Dim and Maeve were sort of used to the impossible happening so they were unfazed by their sudden re-location but for a normal person…

"What spell did you use, child?" Dim-Dim asked Bryn.

"I found it in a book, I didn't think it would work at all!" Bryn said, nervous to be in the company of an actual sorcerer with obvious evidence of her screw-up standing right there. "It was a spell to bring back the person Sinbad was looking for," she added lamely. "I didn't know it could be used to bring back three…"

"It must be the ley lines. We're standing on an intersection," Maeve suggested.

"With this much power I'm surprised you didn't bring back the dead," Dim-Dim agreed. "Now young lady, we're awfully sorry for ignoring you. Can you tell us if there's a reason this young man here would be looking for you?"

"Shouldn't you be asking him that?" the woman asked, the fear that had kept her frozen in place turning to anger.

The others looked at Sinbad, waiting for an answer.

"I have no idea," he said. "What's your name?"

"Elaria… what's yours?" She asked, having not paid that much attention when they'd first appeared.

"Sinbad," he said, a puzzled look on his face. "Wait, Elaria, as in Lea?"

"That was my childhood nickname… Hold on, you're Sinbad! From Baghdad!" Elaria said. "Why on earth are you looking for me?"

Sinbad gaped at her, then turned to Dim-Dim. "Are you sure Bryn hasn't been bringing back the dead?"

"Do I look dead? After falling in the water my parents wouldn't let me play with you anymore, they said you attracted trouble. Not long after that we moved to a little village away from the coast… You really thought I was dead?" Elaria said.

"That's what your parents told me!" Sinbad complained.

"And you've been looking for me all this time?" Elaria asked compassionately.

"We were engaged!" Sinbad said, feeling like a fool now that it turned out one of his biggest childhood traumas- aside from the death of his parents- turned out to be nothing.

"We were eight…" She said, looking mystified. "Anyway, how about you people do that trick in reverse and get me back home?"

Bryn looked at Dim-Dim and Maeve. "I have no idea how to go about that," she admitted.

Maeve shrugged and looked to Dim-Dim for answers.

"Are you sure that is what you want, child?" Dim-Dim asked. "There are opportunities before you now that you never had cause to think of before."

"And I have two children back home who will have VERY few opportunities if I don't return," Elaria said.

"You make a good point," Dim-Dim said. He turned to Bryn and Maeve: "Watch carefully, consider this a teaching moment."

He lay his right hand on Elaria's forehead, closed his eyes and muttered three words. With the sound of a thunderclap the woman disappeared.

Like nothing had happened Dim-Dim now turned to Bryn and extended his still crackling hand to her. "You must be Bryn, it is very nice to finally meet you."

She eyed his hand warily. He followed her line of sight and laughed sheepishly while vigorously shaking his hand to get the remaining power off before extending it again. This time she shook it.

"Nice to meet you too, I've heard a lot about you," she said. "And you're Maeve right? Dermott's told me a lot about you."

Maeve shook Bryn's hand, Bryn saw Maeve's eyes narrow for one, almost imperceptible moment before she was all friendly smiles again. "And where is Dermott? I can't wait to see him!"

"We didn't want anyone else too close in case something explosive happened," Sinbad explained. "Or more explosive." He gingerly poked at his fractured ribs and made a face.

Maeve swatted his hand away, for some reason quite chagrined with him. "Don't touch it, you'll make it worse." She hooked one of her arms through Bryn's. "On the way back to the ship you can tell me all about what Dermott's been up to the last year. Was he very distraught when I disappeared?"

Bryn was very surprised but offered no resistance, steering Maeve in the right direction as they walked, telling her all kinds of things the crew would regret her knowing…

Sinbad watched them go, quite baffled. What had he done now?

"Well my boy, seems like you've done it this time," Dim-Dim said.

Sinbad eyed his former teacher. The old man made a comical sight with Sinbad's shirt hanging down to his knees and wearing nothing else but a knowing grin.

"What did I do?" He threw up his arms, flinched because of his ribs, and then the sailor the master sorcerer followed the two sorceresses. The going was rather slow in deference to the old man's bare feet which made Sinbad even more agitated.

"I think you're old enough to think this one through yourself," Dim-Dim gently admonished him.

"It's because I wouldn't let her treat my ribs?" Sinbad guessed.

"Hardly," the old man answered patiently.

"Something to do with Lea?" Sinbad made another stab in the dark.

"Nope," Dim-Dim said lightly.

"Bryn?" Sinbad asked.

"I think Maeve had expected quite another welcome from you, my boy. I believe she would have appreciated a greeting, a welcome back, perhaps, some evidence that you missed her maybe?" Dim-Dim said to his currently dim-witted pupil.

"But… When could I have done that? I was hurt! And then Lea and then… Well you know. She can't hold that against me! I didn't even welcome you back and I've known you far longer than I've known her," Sinbad protested.

"I wouldn't use quite those words when you apologize to her, my boy," Dim-Dim advised.

"Apologize? For what? I was busy!" Sinbad's voice got louder and louder. He'd forgotten Maeve had that effect on him…

"Still not that words she's looking for," Dim-Dim said, his sagely smile looking a mite too amused for Sinbad's liking.

Sinbad sighed, letting go of his irritation when he saw it led him down a path leading nowhere. "How about this: Welcome back Maeve, I missed you very much, will you please refrain from dying and/or disappearing in the future because my… nerves can't take it."

"Speaking of people dying on you… You took Elaria's appearance very well," Dim-Dim said, though there was a question in there somewhere.

Sinbad ran a hand through his hair. "I haven't thought about Lea for so long… But I guess she was always there, swimming just under the surface of my thoughts, you know? And now it turns out it was all for nothing. I don't even know how to… to wrap my mind around it, never mind how to react to it. I carried this around all my life and she didn't even think twice about it, didn't even slip away from her parents one time to say goodbye to me…"

Dim-Dim patted Sinbad's hand. "You can let it go now, one less load on those shoulders of yours. They could do with a little less tension you know. Maybe you can convince Maeve to rub them for you," Dim-Dim chuckled.

Sinbad shot the sorcerer a dark look but it didn't stick to the cheerful old man.


	5. Bigger on the Inside

AN: Because I love that the Nomad is bigger on the inside than the outside (TARDIS anyone?) and I love our resident sorcerer's apprentice and scientist making life just a little bit more confusing for our dear Captain.

"What are you doing?" Firouz asked, when he happened upon the sorcerer's apprentice that had come aboard just two days ago.

She squatted by one of the ship's ribs, a knife in her hand when she looked up at him. "I thought we could use some more room in this floating tub," Maeve said and continued carving something into the hull of the ship.

Firouz looked confused, this woman clearly did not realize: Holes + Hull = Seawater + Ship; which would lead to the ship and flooding water's combined weight climbing to a point where the balance between the seawater and the ship would be upset to the point of sinking. "Point of fact: these boards were put here with the express purpose of keeping what's outside of it, outside."

"I know, and I am using that very willingness of the boards to just increase the inside a little," Maeve said, a look of intense concentration on her face as she finished the runes she was carving.

"The dimension of this space are set," Firouz said, confused.

"Of course they are," Maeve agreed, opening a door in what had been the hull and revealing a large room on the other side.

"How…?" Firouz asked, carefully poking a foot at the boards before his eyes that he knew shouldn't be there and finding them quite sturdy.

"Just an old trick my mum taught me. We tend to build small and just enlarging the insides as needed," Maeve said, as if this was the most natural thing in the world.

Firouz took a step into the new room, entrusting his weight to his foot and taking another step. "I could use this room for my experiments!" He said, his brain deciding to pass the impossibility by.

"Yes, and I could use it to study. We could even put some tables in here and make this the galley instead of that cramped hole we use now," Maeve nodded.

* * *

Sinbad hopped down the few stairs to the narrow hallway below decks in search of old Master Dim-Dim.

"Coming through!" Firouz called from one doorway as he carefully walked backwards into another doorway carrying one end of a wooden table, after a moment Maeve came after him, carrying the other end of the table.

Wait a second… That doorway hadn't been there before, had it? Granted, the Caliph had only given this ship to him a few days ago, but…

Curious Sinbad stuck his head in the doorway. There had definitely not been a room this size before! "What's going on?" He asked, figuring that with both scientists and sorcerers on his ship he should count his blessings every day nothing blew up.

"I made a room near the hull but we thought it would be better suited here in the centre of the ship so I moved it around. How do you like your new galley?" Maeve asked.

"Firouz?" Sinbad asked, hoping the scientifically-minded man could help him out by giving some explanation that made sense.

"Two objects cannot occupy the same space, but that is not taking into account the fluidity of space. I theorize that there is no conflict of objects because the space they occupy is in fact not the same, rather a looped space brought on by an outside influence in this particular occurrence," Firouz said, as if that would explain it all.

"Right," Sinbad said, and vaguely waved his hand. "Carry on."

He really needed to find Master Dim-Dim now. And a dictionary.


	6. I will not die

Warning: Character death

"I will not die!" Maeve angrily screamed against the unforgiving waters as they passed into her lungs. "I will not die, I am not done here!"

Buffeted on every side in the pitch-black waters, bleeding from a hundred scratches, she was more than angry, she was more than afraid, she was more than determined; she was _livid._  
She didn't even care anymore that there was no air to breathe, she would breathe water! And if her blood would forsake her then seawater in her veins would do. There was no way, no _stinking_ way that she would die right now with her quest, the quest she had already sacrificed everything else in her life for, unfulfilled.

Without any air to buoy her up she drifted down to the seabed where the storm had meant to give her an eternal resting place; instead she started walking.

Rumina was having a bad day. This in itself was nothing new, for a year now Turok was truly back and while having her father alive and well was nice and everything, he had forbidden her favourite pastime; tormenting Sinbad. Now she was stuck on this stupid island, without any of her usual diversions. Turok had called her a spoiled child and literally sent her outside to go play. Without anything to take her rage out on she'd taken to throwing rocks in the air and making them explode, trying to hit as many seagulls as she could with the shrapnel. If she really had been a child, this would be the moment she would run away from home.

Listlessly she watched the ripples in the water where one mortally wounded seagull had crashed down. The ripples didn't die down; instead they increased as something came up out of the water. Sunlight hit red hair, darkened by the moisture, but bright where the light hit. The skin looked clammy and tinged blue, things were growing on that skin… But those brown eyes… Rumina could swear she had seen those before, though they'd been above pink cheeks and lips, not blue ones. The apparition didn't speak, just calmly walked towards the shore.  
Rumina smiled, whatever this creature was, friend or foe, it would be entertaining in one way or another.

"Has my father summoned you from the deep blue sea?" Rumina asked, hands on her hips and tone of voice taunting. "You look like an overgrown barnacle."

And it was true, barnacles had attached themselves to the creature, seaweed draped around her and a lost little crab even scuttled back into her hair.

"A soulless mermaid, come to pay my father homage for giving you a pair of legs? Well you smell like you're rotting, so take a bath or something before you go see him," Rumina said, unconcerned that the sea monster did not reply, it probably didn't even know how to speak.

The creature approached her and Rumina arched one well-shaped eyebrow. "What?" She asked.

Quick as lightening the creature raised an arm, its hand holding a sharp, heavy stone and brought it viciously down on Rumina's head. In that single moment before she realized she was dying Rumina finally recognized the spark of fire in those brown eyes. She choked out a laugh, amused that she was dying because she had forgotten her own importance in the world, having given it all up to her father in her own mind. But some dead-yet-walking peasant witch had remembered and had reminded her with a death-blow.

Turok found his daughter that evening, the water calmly washing her clean. There was no sign of the murderer except a blood encrusted, barnacled rock.

With a sharp cry Dermott landed on deck where he immediately experienced terrible convulsions. He felt like he was dying, like his body was being ripped apart. He screamed out in pain, barely aware of the hands trying to keep him down, trying to keep him from flailing so badly he hurt himself. And then, just as suddenly as it started, the pain stopped.

Panting, he just lay there for a moment, trying to calm himself. He felt a hand on his cheek, his _cheek_, and his eyes met Bryn's.

His heart broke when suddenly he knew exactly what had happened. He cried when he wrapped his arms, _his arms_, around Bryn. It was too much, far too much.

Sinbad frantically tossed more maps onto the table, ecstatic to finally have received a sign of life from Maeve. There was no other option in his mind than that Maeve had finally managed to free her brother. Now it was just a question of finding her.

He spotted Dermott entering the galley out of the corner of his eye. That boy looked so much like his sister there was really no question about their relation.

"Dermott! Come here, look at these maps, where do you think Maeve is?" Sinbad motioned the former hawk over.

Hesitantly, Dermott entered, closing the door behind him. "Captain… Sinbad we have to talk."

"Yes, of course, we'll get you everything you need, but first we have to figure out a course. All of us have a standing agreement to meet up in Baghdad should we get separated, do you think Maeve will go there now that she's completed her mission?" Sinbad asked, rolling out one of his charts and weighing it down with some of Firouz's instruments.

"She isn't in Baghdad," Dermott said, waiting patiently for the captain to stop and pay attention.

"You know where she is?" Sinbad asked, waving another sea-chart around as he turned to Dermott.

"You can't find her on any chart," Dermott started and took a deep, shuddering breath before continuing. "She died well over a year ago. That didn't stop my stubborn sister. She had dedicated her life to freeing me from Rumina's curse and when she died she dedicated her death to it as well. For over a year she-" Dermott had to stop for a moment, as emotion threatened to overwhelm him. "She lived the torturous life of the in-between and walked the bottom of the sea until she completed what she set out to do. She is at peace now. For the first time since that woman walked into our lives she is at peace," Dermott's legs didn't support him any longer, his heart too heavy for them to bear.

Sinbad dropped the map, it just fell from between his frozen fingers. "What? No! Dim-Dim, he said that she was with him, that she was safe!" Sinbad protested.

"He lied," Dermott answered.

"But… No! There's no way, you can't know all this, you were here this whole time. You're making this up! Why are you making this up?" Sinbad angrily asked, grabbing Dermott by his collar and hauling him up.

"In her last moment she touched my mind," Dermott explained, making no move to defend himself.

Sinbad searched Dermott's eyes, eyes that looked so much like _hers_, trying to find some sign that he was lying, that this was all part of some twisted ruse. All he saw was grief.

Still angry he dropped Dermott, turning away from him, trying to calm down but incapable of wrapping his mind around that what he had just been told. "Dim-Dim wouldn't lie," Sinbad insisted.

"He would to protect you," Dermott said.

Sinbad couldn't take it anymore. "What makes you so special, huh? What makes you so arrogant that you would let your own sister sacrifice her life for you?" He spat at Dermott.

He'd obviously hit a sore spot as Dermott's shoulders started to shake and a sob escaped his lips. "I told her alright? I told her I didn't mind being a hawk! I told her to stay home and then I told her to stay with Dim-Dim and then I told her to give in to her feelings for you and make a family… But she didn't listen! She couldn't bear the thought that there was something she could do to help me and she wasn't doing it. Maybe if I had found the right words… Maybe if she hadn't been washed overboard… She was so damn stubborn! Every day I had to watch her ignore every opportunity for happiness! She didn't even share her burden! And now she's dead! After a year of torturing herself she is finally dead and it's all my fault! Are you happy now? Is that what you want to hear? My sister died for me because I was too stupid to see the trap before walking into it," Dermott shouted at Sinbad, tears running down his face. He had initially sought the captain out to share his grief, to help the sailor through it as best he could but the reality of the situation hit him hard just now and he couldn't think straight anymore.

Sinbad looked startled at Dermott's grief stricken outburst and all he could think of was how pissed Maeve would be at him for upsetting her little brother. Shakily he put a hand on Dermott's shoulder. "It is not your fault. No one could make her do anything she didn't want to. Come on, she was even stubborn enough to cheat death for an entire year," he said.

Dermott looked Sinbad in the eye, both had tears streaming down their faces at this point, though they bravely tried to ignore them. "Do you want to feel it? What she felt that last moment when she touched my mind?"

Sinbad hesitated, fearing what he was about to agree to, but he knew that he would regret it if he declined so he nodded.

Dermott lay a hand along Sinbad's cheek and blinked.

Sinbad was overwhelmed, first at the events she had been through and then at the love she felt at the moment of dying, for Dermott, for Sinbad, for her friends, for herself, for _life_ and how though she was saddened by her death she was also relieved to be done with her half-life.

Sinbad embraced Dermott like a brother and together the two grieved for a loved one lost.


End file.
